Just received job offer. How does this affect my plan to file Chapter 7

[avengers]

It sounds like you found a good attorney. I bet you will get a Chap 7 discharge. But, if you don't, don't reject a Chap 13 without learning more about it. You would not have 100 percent of every check taken. A Chap 13 plan pays what you can afford to pay after your living expenses are paid. According to your original post, you have $54k in rechargeable debt. To pay that in 60 months without chap 13 you would have to pay $900 a month plus interest. In a Chap 13, your payment could be much less and will not include interest on your unsecured debt.

Thanks for the encouragement. You're right that I shouldn't dismiss Chap 13 out of hand. I'll be eligible for the 3 year payoff instead of 5 years, so that will be better. The idea of not being in control of my own money is not appealing to me, but there are plenty of benefits to Chap 13 also. So if chapter 7 is rejected, I'll definitely have my attorney explain chapter 13 more thoroughly to me.

[LadyInTheRed]

The idea of not being in control of my own money is not appealing to me, but there are plenty of benefits to Chap 13 also.

You are in control of your money while in a Chap 13. Yes, you have to get authorization if you need to incur debt. And depending on the plan, you may have to send tax refunds to the trustee. Other than that, you just go about your life and make a payment to the trustee every month. For me, my $500 plan payment replaced about $1,400 in credit card payments and my second mortgage payment and included the payment on the car I bought a month before filing. I just mailed payment number 52, my car is paid off, my attorney fees, except a $1,000 retainer, were paid in the plan and the credit cards and second mortgage just started getting paid by the trustee in May. When I complete my plan next April, less than $6,000 will have gone towards $31,600 in credit card debt and my $88,000 2nd mortgage and those debts will be discharged in full. If it weren't for my monthly ritual of going to the post office and buying a money order, I would not notice I was in Chap 13. I never would have been able to get rid of all that debt and pay off my $17,000 car loan within 5 years by dealing with the creditors outside of BK. All that for a total of $30,000, a lot less than I would have paid if I continued to pay minimum monthly payments while barely touching the principal on the credit cards.

Hopefully, this is all unnecessary information for you because you will get a Chap 7 discharge.

[avengers]

Just thought I'd update this thread with the latest happenings.

I ended up buying a car in October and filing for chapter 7 the very next day (because my bank account had fallen below the $600 exemption amount). The trustee asked for additional pay stubs but nothing out of the ordinary.

Had the 341 today. Trustee didn't ask anything at all about my current income. Didn't even ask anything about $1300 in stocks that were not mentioned as being exempt. All he asked about were two IRAs (my attorney later said this was probably done so he could be on the record as trying to find out information about assets, but the questions were pointless because the IRAs are exempt). And he asked about a business that I no longer run.

My attorney says those are good signs. This trustee is really lenient. While he could go after some of the assets, he probably won't. And if he does, we could offer to buy it from him for $500. So I'm pretty hopeful. My attorney says this trustee is easy and pretty quick, so the trustee will probably send his final report the first week of December and we'll have our discharge 60 days after that.

[avengers]

Quick update:

As I noted in another thread, there was a 2004 hearing in my case. It was mainly for the trustee to get a hold of the only non-exempt asset I had.

The meeting was last week, on the 22nd. I received my discharge the very next day!

Thanks to everyone here who helped me throughout this process. Being nearly completely debt free (except for student loans) is such a relief to us.